In 1910, the banker and prolific art collector J. Pierpont Morgan thought he’d snagged a Giovanni Bellini painting. The tightly packed scene of the Virgin and Child blessing a genuflecting donor had some of Bellini’s pop of color and play of natural light, but turned out to be a work by Marco Bello, a member of the Venetian’s prolific workshop.

In recent years, the painting has hung in Morgan’s study alongside Renaissance works by Hans Memling and Perugino. Soon, a true Bellini will temporarily take Bello’s place with New York’s Morgan Museum and Library displaying Pietà (ca. 1470), on loan from the City Museum of Rimini, from January 15, 2026. It’s the first time the painting has been shown in the U.S. and follows a comprehensive restoration by the non-profit Venetian Heritage.

Also known as Dead Christ Supported by Angels, it appears as described with a pale and lightly blooded Christ painted in half-length and seemingly on the verge of tumbling out the frame. Four attentive angels stop this from happening—well, three at least, since the fourth seems somewhat unfazed by the scene, their arms cross and attentions elsewhere. Bellini shirks melodramatic weeping and wailing, instead offering his angels calmly going about their business in an almost perfunctory fashion. Here he is, they seem to say matter-of-factly, look how he suffered—hence the name imago pietatis, or “an image of piety.”

The west room of J. Pierpont Morgan’s study. Photo: courtesy the Morgan Library.

Though Bellini hailed from a celebrated family of painters and was destined to become a leading Venetian artist, he was still on the rise when he painted Pietà for Rainerio di Lodovico Migliorati, an advisor to the ruling family of Rimini who kept it in his palace for private devotion. The direction of travel, however, is clear.

“We already see him merging a few key traditions and influences,” the Morgan’s curator John Marciari said over email. “Thus forging the modern manner for which he is still famous.” The half-length is drawn from the tradition of Byzantine icon painting, the sculptural elements taken from Bellini’s study of Donatello, and his sense of classical form likely gleaned from his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna.

The painting, which remained at Migliorati’s memorial from his death in 1499 until the end of the 18th century, was in need of serious treatment. Humidity had long ago caused the panel to shift and split, resulting in a loss of paint and a large crack running across the middle of the painting. In celebration of its rejuvenation, Pietà will travel to Ca’ d’Oro in Venice ahead of its stateside showing.

In New York, it will join another Italian loan, Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit (ca. 1593–95), a playful work from the Borghese Gallery that shows red-faced young man clutching a basket of overripe fruit.

“Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Pietà’ Restored” is on view at the Morgan Museum and Library, 225 Madison Avenue, New York, January 15–April 19, 2026.